


Jefferson and Ruby Sink the Rumbelle ship and It's Not What You Think.

by Of_Princes_and_Savages



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Enjoy the fun, Ficlet, Fluff, Gen, Side Frankenwolf, You too Gold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 11:07:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7265557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Of_Princes_and_Savages/pseuds/Of_Princes_and_Savages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exactly what it says on the label. With a Frankenwolf extra!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jefferson and Ruby Sink the Rumbelle ship and It's Not What You Think.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BarPurple](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/gifts).
  * Inspired by [On The Rocks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7201814) by [BarPurple](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple). 



Dating in Storybrooke turned out to be just slightly less difficult than landing a shuttle on the moon. It could be done, but only with careful thought, contingency plans, emergency protocols, and back-ups.

At least if you were Belle French and Rum Gold.

Their initial courtship consisted of shy flirting, miscommunications of their feelings, and one near-death catastrophe with a strawberry sponge cake that Belle still felt a bit of guilt over. Once they finally got on the same page, though, everything was groovy on their end. The townsfolk however?

In their minds, Belle was as good as engaged to Gaston for years despite the lug never trying to put a ring on Belle's finger. (At least...while they were together.) Gaston was a strapping, handsome young man, good prospects, and had the wholehearted approval of Belle's father Moe. Why shouldn't shy, bookish, odd little Belle stay with a man like that? She couldn't do better! Every time there was trouble in proverbial paradise, the finger of guilt pointed at Belle for "impossible expectations from those books" or something. Then Moe would bring around a bouquet of free roses for Gaston and they'd be together again, by two weeks, at the most.

Even when he'd taken up with Aurora from the beauty parlor, everyone said it was because Belle was being a bitch and he needed a break.

If Belle had never returned to being Gaston's arm-candy, the town might accept that. Eventually. But she had gone and done the unthinkable: Gone with Mr. Gold! The Beast of Storybrooke!

Long story short: Eating out in Storybrooke was a rare occurrence until the next piece of gossip drew attention away from them, because as it stood, just picking up to-go at Granny's was met with stares and whispers of "gold digger" and "old lecher" in equal measure.

So Belle and Rum stayed in a lot, watching Netflix, necking on the sofa like teenagers, and, sometimes, playing board games. They were just about evenly matched in most games, Clue, Trivial Pursuit, and chess being favorites. Belle was superior at Scrabble by the same smidge that Rum was in Monopoly. Both were abysmal in Jenga and Operation. Jefferson, who liked to claim he was a driving force in getting the pair together, had once tried to give them an adult's adult board game that nearly killed both on sight: Belle from embarrassment, Rum with horror.

Ruby, who was the strongest supported in Belle's corner, had offered to teach Belle to play strip-poker. That was only slightly less humiliating.

Jefferson was already friends with Victor Whale, Ruby's boyfriend. And over the course of matchmaking their best friends, he'd befriended Ruby herself, too.

And sometimes Belle was glad for that.

And sometimes Gold was not.

"First-Officer Lucas! You're supposed to be protecting the battleships, not letting the enemy sink them!"

"Sorry Captain!" Ruby grinned unrepentantly, throwing a salute. "But the enemy has the advantage!"

"Nevertheless, we can't let the crew down! Prepare to fire Miss Lucas-"

"Mister!" Belle corrected through a fit of giggles. "In the Navy everyone's a mister! I think."

Rum had retreated to hiding behind his palms, put peeked through his fingers to see his pink-faced girlfriend laughing as Jefferson nodded seriously, swallowing a mouthful of red wine and agreeing. "Yes! Thank you Mis-Uh, Mr. French, yes! Or are you the Captain?"

"Who cares! Imma sink your ship French!" Ruby sang tipsily. Rum regretted having a bottle of wine open when these two clowns crashed date-night. He'd been too embarrassed to finish his glass but his Belle was a social creature and had no problem draining her glass. Neither had Ruby or Jefferson.

"Prepare to fire!" Jefferson pointed forwards dramatically. "B5!"

"Aah! _Nooo!_ You sank my battleship!" Belle moaned, plucking one of the gray pieces with three holes out the "water" and tossing it aside. She nearly fell over but ended up leaning on Gold's side, wrapping around him like an affectionate vine and nuzzling his shirtsleeve.

Okay. Maybe it wasn't all bad.

Jefferson whooped triumphantly and grabbed a handful of white plastic pegs and threw them in the air, heedless of how they fell back on his and Ruby's heads. Two plinked into the half-empty wine glass. The doorbell rang then and Ruby sprang up, wobbling only slightly on her candy-apple red stilettos.

"That's Victor!" she chirped, trotting off with the surety of the inebriated in the direction of the door.

Gold settled back against the sofa with Belle still curled around him, humming something that sounded suspiciously like the Titanic theme. She'd probably had enough wine tonight. So had Jefferson...who was poking around the glass with a finger trying to fish the pegs out. Yes. No more wine tonight for anyone, he decided, kissing the top of Belle's head.

* * *

Victor Whale should have been off at six. But he'd been held up until almost eight. Ruby said she and Jefferson were going to visit/pester Belle and Rum Gold while she waited for him to get off work, so he'd said he'd meet her at the pink (sorry Gold, salmon,) mansion. Victor was on decent terms with Mr. Gold. He had one of the few properties Gold didn't own, so he wasn't his landlord. And they had a mutual friend in Jefferson. As long as they stuck to general conversation and kept from needling each other too much, everything was perfectly pleasant between them.

Plus, Belle was Ruby's best friend, and for some reason Mr. Gold made her happy. And if Belle was happy, Ruby was happy, and that was in Victor's best interests.

He rang the little doorbell and waited outside the stained-glass door a moment. He heard clicking footsteps that had to have been Ruby or Belle, and the door flung open to a blur of dark hair and red that filled Victor's arms.

"Baby! I missed you!"

"Hi Ruby," Victor helped her settle on her feet before Ruby launched back into his arms with a sloppy-but-sweet kiss. "I'm sorry I'm late. You'd think I was the only doctor in town."

"That's okay. We've been having fun blowing up Gold and Belle," Ruby smiled brightly.

Victor wondered what he missed. Clearly involved little plastic bits. Which were tangled in her red-streaked hair. With a smile as Ruby pulled him inside, only to stop him once the door was closed for another wine-flavored kiss, Victor wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders and started picking what he identified as white Battleship pegs out her hair as she tugged him into the living room.

"Jefferson! Can Victor be on our crew?"

"The more the merrier!" came the cheery reply.

Victor wondered, again, what he missed.

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a fun comment section discussion set in Chapter 5 of "On The Rocks" between me, BarPurple, and The Ultimatefan about Capt. Jefferson and First Officer Ruby.


End file.
